Students Opposing Slavery

We are the generation that saysENOUGH.

Students Opposing Slavery (SOS) is an award-winning youth education program for students dedicated to continuing Lincoln’s fight for freedom by raising awareness about modern slavery within a high-risk population – teenagers. A cornerstone of the SOS program is the week-long Students Opposing Slavery International Summit, which President Lincoln’s Cottage first launched in 2013. At the Summit, dozens of teenagers from around the world come together to gain resources and training to take action against human trafficking in their own communities. Started in 2012 by four teenagers who believed that they had a responsibility to do what they could to end slavery in their time, SOS has flourished under the auspices of President Lincoln’s Cottage. Today, SOS is a growing network of young abolitionists from around Washington, D.C., the nation, and the world who are working together to end slavery.

In October 2016, SOS received the Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons at the meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the White House. Secretary of State John Kerry presented the medal to SOS students and Cottage staff members. For more on the award, please read our press release.

Our Goals

Raise awareness of human trafficking

Empower youth leaders of the anti-trafficking movement at the annual Summit